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Our NewsletterIssue No. 39: Where are Health Costs Rising Most?
Hospitals. And Here is Why. One of the great mysteries in recent years is why pharmaceutical companies are portrayed as the villains in the story of rising U.S. health care costs while hospitals are virtually ignored. A devastating article in the new issue ofNational Affairs, a respected journal that explores domestic policy, helps to set the record straight and to explain the conundrum. Before we get the article itself, here are some recent facts about hospital costs.
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What Others Are Saying"The anger directed at the pharmaceutical and biotech industries overall is misdirected. The single biggest driving force for increased health-care spending in the U.S. is the rising cost of labor, not drugs." "Even if pharmaceutical spending were rising as a share of total health care spending, but that rise was due to pharmaceutical investments driving down expenditures in other health care areas (e.g. a reduced need for more expensive surgeries), then it would still be inaccurate to argue that pharmaceutical spending is driving overall health care inflation." |